Extreme Couponing: Irritating or Amazing

So I've seen this show a couple times and I want to see what ya'll's (yes, yes I wrote that) take on it is. To me its a bit of both. I think its fine if you figure out how to get something that's on your regular grocery list for free one week or two but to stockpile just because you can irritates me.

Here's just an example of what I mean by extreme couponing for those that don't know.

My wife has been doing this for a while, since before the show was popular on TLC. We don't have a stock pile that could feed a small country, but we do have a decent supply of items like deoderant, soaps, etc. When we find a good deal, we often donate things like razors, travel size shampoo, feminine products to military family support organizations, woman's shelters, etc.

You can make it whatever you'd like, you can be a pig and hoard a huge stock pile for yourself and clear out entire stores of stock, or you can use the coupon system to your advantage, and share the savings and freebies with others. The store isn't losing money, and neither is the manufacturer. If they were, they wouldn't issue coupons, and stores wouldn't allow their use.

Irritating. It's fake. There are regional rules to coupons, such as limits, exclusions, etc. They ran an episode in Southeast Michigan that violated all the written rules in that supermarket's weekly circulars.

It's the same reason I can't watch all these reality shows about "Towing". At least 2 of them claim to be in Florida, yet they violate Florida law every episode by not dropping the vehicle when the owner confronts them. By Florida State Statute, you MUST release a repossession from the tow truck if told to do so by the owner. The law is designed to prevent disorder over non-criminal, civil matters.

It's not coupons but I do all my grocery shopping at 9pm at a store closes at 10pm. At 9 they mark down a lot of their prepared food by 50% and other food by 30%. Meat that's 2 days out from it's sell by date, bring it home and cook it or freeze it. There are times when all the food for the week was on sale or just reduced. Whole cooked chicken for $4.50 which I can get 4 or 5 meals out of, can't beat that.

Originally Posted by N-7

Just three word what the f***. They should put limits on coupons :P

Most coupons do have limitations or requirements but a lot of store if you complain they will wave them

Never seen this kind of extreme coupon behaviour before. Wouldn't work in Sweden, as in general, you can only use one specific coupon once. That means you can't bring 20 identical coupons to a store. I suppose you could walk though the store several times and hope they don't recongize you, but it's pretty far fetched.

Apart from that, using coupons are quite smart, however spending 6 hours a day doing it? Get a job instead, I bet it will serve you better in the long haul. While you may make some "amazing deals" where you can buy 100 bottles of mustard for absolutely nothing, quite soon you will run out of stuff to buy in insane amounts that you still can even remotely use. Unless you actually start re-selling these, all your "extreme savings" will soon not mean much anymore, as you don't need to things you get.

The only way I could see myself doing this is if I donated all of what I got to charity. Then it would be worth it in my opinion because you're helping giving overstock items to people that are truly in need. However, their inconsideration when they clear out a store's stock to the people that are coming to shop that have immediate uses for those items really gets to me.

Irritating. It's fake. There are regional rules to coupons, such as limits, exclusions, etc. They ran an episode in Southeast Michigan that violated all the written rules in that supermarket's weekly circulars.

It's the same reason I can't watch all these reality shows about "Towing". At least 2 of them claim to be in Florida, yet they violate Florida law every episode by not dropping the vehicle when the owner confronts them. By Florida State Statute, you MUST release a repossession from the tow truck if told to do so by the owner. The law is designed to prevent disorder over non-criminal, civil matters.

I think it's fine when the people donate the food or items to people that really need it like as charity, but when people just horde it solely because they can buy that much, I think it's gone too far.

As long as they use the items eventually I have no problem with it. But I am reminded of one of my professors who said no matter what the savings on an item is your still spending money. I hope they don't have a financial emergency and realize all their money is tied up in toilet paper.

I think it's fine when the people donate the food or items to people that really need it like as charity, but when people just horde it solely because they can buy that much, I think it's gone too far.

Yeah these people seem to be just hording supplies just to horde it, almost seems like an addiction for them(your home is already packed full of groceries why do you still need to go?). I get wanting to have a few months of non-perishable food stock for the occasional emergency or natural disaster but why in the world do you need over a hundred packages of toilet paper, paper towels, or mustard if you aren't planning on donating it to local charities or food banks?

It's ridiculous to buy something you don't need just because you can. For instance, if you do not need 83 bottles of mustard for your family's personal use, no need to buy out the store. Buy 10 and never have to buy mustard again this year (or whatever the shelf life of the product you're buying), but leave the other 73 for other people who might shop at the store and need/want a freaking bottle of mustard. The ones who feel compelled to buy EVERYTHING if they can get a good deal obviously have a problem. Otherwise, if you can get what you need for cheap, that's cool.

what that show failed to point out (for a long time, it's been better about it lately) is how these "stockpilers" also donate tons of stuff to local food banks and charities. At least, a lot of them do, i know a couple personally. While some of them probably do hoard stuff just because, many aren't that selfish, lol